Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday 24th May

Abbot Paul • May 23, 2022

Message from Fr Paul for Tuesday, 24th May 2022

At Belmont today we celebrate the feast of the Dedication of the cathedral church of the diocese, in our case the Archdiocese of Cardiff. It’s a bit of an anomaly that Herefordshire still belongs to a Welsh diocese while being a quintessential English border county. It should be remembered, however, that much of this county south of the Wye remained ethically and linguistically Welsh well into the 18th century. For this reason, it became part of the Welsh region of the Catholic Church when this was created in 1840 with Bishop Thomas Joseph Brown, a monk of Downside, as Vicar Apostolic. In 1850 he was appointed first Bishop of Newport and Menevia (the Latin for Wales), but had no cathedral church. When Belmont was built during the 1850s, he accepted it from the founder, Francis Richard Wegg-Prosser, to be the cathedral of the diocese. And so it remained until 1916, when the see was transferred to Cardiff and the parish church of St David chosen to be the new cathedral. For just four years Belmont was the co-cathedral, until it became an abbey in 1920. Today, then, we celebrate the Dedication of the Cathedral Church of St David in Cardiff.

After that rather long historic introduction, just a few words follow about the Gospel read everywhere else, again taken from John, (Jn 16: 5-11), being the continuation of yesterday’s passage. Jesus has told his disciples that he will send them the Holy Spirit, the Advocate or Paraclete, that proceeds from the Father. He goes on to explain how the Spirit will come and why. One thing is clear: the Spirit’s coming necessitates his own leaving them, at least in the physical form of his body.

“I must tell you the truth:

it is for your own good that I am going

because unless I go,

the Advocate will not come to you;

but if I do go,

I will send him to you.”

Jesus will return to the Father, taking his body with him, at his Ascension, but with the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus will always be with his disciples spiritually until the end of time. This is what we believe and hold firm to today. Jesus is with us because it is the Holy Spirit who makes that possible, just as in all the sacraments, it is the Spirit who makes Christ present. An excellent example of this is the Eucharist. It is through the Holy Spirit that the bread and wine become transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus and that we are transformed into Christ through the Spirit’s indwelling in our souls. The Spirit also enlightens us in our faith and guides the Church always to discern the will of God. Today the Lord is giving us the opportunity of praying for our young people who are preparing for Confirmation. They will soon become temples of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit will always teach them the truth, if they but open their hearts to him.

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Belmont's Organ Back in Action!

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Belmont Abbey Organ is the second largest organ in the County of Herefordshire. It has 3 manuals (keyboards) and 54 stops and is second only to the organ of Hereford Cathedral (4 Manuals and 67 stops) - Belmont has the largest organ in our Catholic Diocese.